Adding or consolidating call centers

Authorities say instances of confusion delaying responses to a 2006 Wyoming apartment fire that killed a man, or firefighters in the same city not receiving an alert of a man suffering a fatal heart attack outside a shuttered fire station, will not happen under the new system.

In each of those past cases, cell phone callers bounced from multiple centers.

The city and Wyoming are on the verge of finalizing combining those functions.

Calls from the rest of the county, including other suburban cities, will ring into Kent County, which will simultaneously feed that information to fire, ambulance and police agency dispatchers.

KGB is currently taking applications for open positions.

However, Maricela Arcila with KGB said Tuesday they plan on having 450 employees by the end of the year.GRAND RAPIDS -- Overcoming political and local control hurdles, five emergency call-taking centers in Kent County will be trimmed to two next year and dispatching functions are likely to follow suit.For 911 callers, it should bring a quicker response from police, fire and ambulance units and stop the complications of repeating a story multiple times.The new Honda, unveiled Thursday, is scheduled to hit showrooms this winter. The compact SUV passed the midsize car last year to become the top-selling segment of the U. Weekly applications for unemployment benefits were unchanged at a seasonally adjusted 246,000, the Labor Department said Thursday.The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell 3,500 to 249,250.Finding a working model has been more than 20 years in the making.Grand Rapids City Manager Greg Sundstrom said there were "technical and political" processes that slowed the new model.Online shopping is expected to rise 7 percent to 10 percent over last year to as much as 7 billion.Verizon closing call centers in 5 states Verizon plans to close call centers in five states, including its home state of New York, where the impending loss of hundreds of jobs prompted the governor's office to label the company's move as “corporate abuse.” The company said Thursday a consolidation of its call centers will impact about 3,200 workers near Rochester and New York City; Bangor, Maine; Lincoln, Neb.; Wallingford and Meriden, Conn., and Rancho Cordova, Calif.It's not known if an immediate response would have saved either life, but officials admitted the system was fraught with roadblocks.The new configuration will route all Grand Rapids police and fire calls to city call-takers, who will dispatch resources.